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Golf Digest, Sept, 2001 by John Hawkins, Tim Rosaforte

A video and a guest

As the U.S. squad gathered in the team room Saturday night, the next three hours were a tempest of emotion. A motivational video planned for months by the Crenshaws was followed by a special guest speaker, then soul-baring reflections from every member of the team, wives included.

Julie Crenshaw: Ben was pumped up when he got back to the hotel--I didn't think he was going mental at all. Then [PGA of America media official] Julius Mason came in and handed him some stuff. Ben said, "I'm gonna share this with the team." It was Colin Montgomerie saying, "You know it's over, don't you?"

Montgomerie: I've said a lot of things in my life, but I'm not stupid enough to say that. If I was ever quoted as saying it was over, it was rubbish.

Julie Crenshaw: When the pairings started circulating, everyone was like, "Well, hello! This is fabulous. We've got this one, this one, this one, this one, this one. We're 1 up already." We sat around and ate. Half of us were on the floor. There were so many things the guys really enjoyed, and that was one of them. It was very casual.

Melissa Lehman: Did you ever go to camp as a kid? You remember what it was like the night when everybody just comes together? That's what Saturday night was like.

O'Meara: Everybody exchanged gifts. The players gave a gift to Ben, the wives gave one to Julie, and Julie gave gifts to the players.

Julie Crenshaw: Traditionally they give the captain a trophy and his wife a beautiful silver box. So Ashley Sutton gives me this golf broach. It was horrible. It was enamel. I'm thinking, "Oh, I've got a team with such young wives; they didn't know they were supposed to give me that silver box." Ashley starts howling. "Ha, ha, ha!" It was funny. After we watched the movie, they gave me the box. I bawled like a baby.

Furyk: There were videotapes every night. One night it might be the Europeans knocking in shots from everywhere, which was probably supposed to tick us off. Another night was a video of us winning tournaments, to pump us up.

Julie Crenshaw: We worked on the [Saturday night] movie for a year. Mickey Holden, the producer, Ben and I came up with the idea. I asked all the wives who their husbands looked up to, what kind of music they liked. Jim Furyk is a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so we had a clip from their coach [Bill Cowher]. Ben had the idea of doing a patriotic movie clip, which starts with George C. Scott in "Patton." And then George C. Scott died that week.

Furyk: It was a very eclectic group--musicians, athletes from other sports, politicians. Just an amazing group. Lehman: I have a really close friend, Les Hughey, the pastor of our church. He does this "Deliverance" thing where he puts his hat on sideways and says, "Tom, they say you kiss the best, but now you've gotta go out there and kick some tail." He rattles on for about five minutes. Everybody's like, "Man, who is that guy?" I tell them he's the pastor at my church. They're like, "I want to go to your church."

Ben Crenshaw: There was some funny stuff, some serious stuff--it kept your emotions going. It was fun.